I have a bush in my backyard. In fact, I have several bushes in my backyard. But one of those bushes is special. That one bush holds a nest. Recently the eggs in the nest started to hatch. Out of those eggs came baby grackles. I’m a long time hater… Read More »Memorial Day Backyard
On May 23, I had my housewarming party. I would consider it a success on some level. 10-15 showed up for it. I would like to thank everybody that made an appearance: Baier, Jason Bardole, Shannon Bennett, Charlotte Brannen, Suzie Daniel, Jeff Derner, Geri Degeneffe, Scott Gorshe, Derrick Gorshe, Jen… Read More »Shindy
I had a housewarming/birthday shindig on May 23. I made individual invitations for those that were invited. I’d like to share some of them. Willy The Kahlers Nader Sara Shannon The Roberts Family The Hiatts The Howards Jay Jeff and Yin The Gorshes The Baiers Bethany and Rebecca Casy The… Read More »Housewarming Invites
In my quest to catch up, I’m going to just copy and paste an email about a recent experience I had a new local pizzeria. So if you were the one who received this email, you might want to skip reading this and go back to your normal job duties.… Read More »Black Plague Pizza
There are no pictures from moving day, but I would like to thank the people that gave some effort to make moving day work out. The Friday before moving day had spectacular weather. The Saturday of moving day was not scheduled to have spectacular weather. I returned to work on… Read More »Moving Day
Although Carla and Alexis did a wonderful job of taking pictures, one of the downsides of not having taken any pictures myself is that I didn’t get pictures of everybody that helped. So thanks to my incredible painting crew on Primary Painting Day: Jason Stensland Carla Stensland Alexis Stensland Jason… Read More »Primary Painting Day
Negotiation isn’t the sharpest tool in my skillset. So after I had made the decision to make a move and try to buy the House with the Cute Backyard, I was a bit worried about the negotiation part of the process. To not bore you with the details of the… Read More »The Ballad of House Buying: Part 5 – The Art of Negotiation
In addition to being Lowell’s birthday, Saturday, January 10, 2009 was Symposium. It was also the Ames Jaycees Year End Banquet, where I apparently got an award that involved batteries, but I was not there. I had to make a choice. I chose Symposium. Well the truth is that I… Read More »The Great Snow Ordinance
Saturday was the day of the big Ottumwa Blitz. I made plans to see the houses on Saturday morning before Jay and I headed to Ottumwa. I had drove past the house on Union a couple of times and determined that the backyard might be a little bit too cutesy.… Read More »The Ballad of House Buying: Part 2: Initial Look
So I think I can be a little freer with the experience of house buying that I have been enduring. I guess the most important news is that I am officially going through the process of buying a house now. I would like to at least go through the process… Read More »The Ballad of House Buying: Part 1 The Surrogates
I had big plans this weekend of going down to Ottumwa to help Jen and Derrick get the house in Ottumwa in shape to go on the market, but unfortunately I had a little trouble on the way to work on Friday. That my friends, is a blown tire. I… Read More »Blitz
I got a call from Jen on Saturday. She told me that some of her Uncle’s neighbors in Ottumwa had complained about the dumpster that was sitting in front of the house. The neighbors understood why it was there, but wanted it removed until after Christmas. Derrick and Jen were… Read More »Don’t Screw with the Gorshes
When Sara and I went to Ottumwa I think we might of had a glimpse into Boone’s future if it becomes the proud home of a Juice Bar. I should start out by pointing out that on our way to Ottumwa Sara got pulled over and issued a speeding ticket… Read More »The Future of Boone
Jen’s Uncle Jon passed away last Tuesday. He was laid to rest on Saturday. Below are the words that Jen wrote to be read at his funeral. They are painfully beautiful. To the world, Jon was introverted, shy, reserved, quiet –to me he was just “Jon”. Maybe if prompted to… Read More »Jen’s Uncle
I spent most of Monday with Sara. We started the day by lunching at Fresh Cafe and Market. It is an interesting little restaurant in West Des Moines that is only open about 20 hours a week. They specialize in serving an organic menu. We started the meal with a… Read More »Ottumwa
Today is Sara’s birthday. Rather than post a bunch of pictures of Sara for Sara’s birthday, I’m going to take a slightly different tact. Yesterday I wrote about Sara auditioning to become a Photography 139 Photo Assistant. She got high marks for having a big purse. One of her few… Read More »Happy Birthday Sara!
More pictures from Saturday. Some of these pictures were taken by Sara as she was auditioning to become a Photography 139 Photo Assistant. Relaxing On dry land Done Done Oar duty Guns Oar Duty Me Celebration Celebrating with some juice. Jen and Derrick Sara Banner The Past Back in the… Read More »My Saturday (Volume 2)
My big plan for Saturday was to journey down to Des Moines to watch Jen compete in the Des Moines Regatta. I have never been to such an event, so it was going to be a new experience. I started my day by going to Ames to drop off a… Read More »My Saturday (Volume 1)
Not only did I get the honor of being a triple threat at The Wedding of the Year, I also received one of the greatest present I have ever received in my life. That means a lot coming from me. I’m not prone to superlatives. Jen made a sweet stained… Read More »The Wedding of the Year (Prelude)
As Shawn and I were called to perform our secondary duty of ushering, I handed my camera to Kelly. She took the following pictures before the battery on the camera gave out. I was so completely drained from this wonderful day that I didn’t wake up until 1:30 on Sunday… Read More »The Wedding of the Year (Part 3)
This is really a continuation of more pictures of the wedding principals taking it easy backstage before the big show. Monica took the pictures of me, including my picture with Jay, the one where he reveals that he truly doesn’t like me all that much.